MotoGP Silverstone: Sixth quickest Dovizioso eyeing Sunday charge

“I believe we are struggling during these two days, but at the end, our lap time was very close.”

Andrea Dovizioso believes he and Ducati are in a competitive position at Silverstone after qualifying sixth for the British Grand Prix.

After conducting a series of runs on all three compounds – soft, medium and hard – of rear tyre, Dovizioso spoke highly of the GP17’s punch out of Silverstone’s corners, as well as the bike’s ability on corner entry.

At the close of qualifying, Dovizioso, who is currently second in the world championship, was 0.6s slower than pole sitter and title rival Marc Marquez.

“I think we are quite competitive,” said Dovizioso. “I don't know how much, because it's really difficult to understand exactly. But I think our bike is really, really good in acceleration and braking, but about turning, still we didn't improve.

“And it's quite heavy, so in some parts we lose too much. And that's why I believe we are struggling during these two days, but at the end, our lap time was very close.

“We tried a different geometry this morning, but it didn't work, and we came back and the previous one is better. So we are working a lot on the suspension, and especially with Michelin, we have to work a lot with the suspension, I believe. But it's very difficult. There's always a small line to have the right balance.

“It's difficult, because all three tyres work quite well, this is positive. But it's difficult because we lost time yesterday when we compared the medium, soft, and hard, the hard didn't work. But we knew that there was a problem with the tyre, we expected it.

“And today we spent the time to compare again, and the hard tyre worked quite well, like the other riders. So we lost time yesterday, but we are quite fast with all three tyres, and it's quite difficult to decide. It's a difficult thing for every rider to choose a tyre when you have three choices.

“We don't have enough time to work on the tyre. The practice we have is not enough, especially because in the first three practices, we have to do the lap time. So we have to spend the time with the soft tyre to set a good lap time at the end of the practice.

“That means that the laps you are able to put on each tyre is less than half race distance, especially at this track, which is very long. It's almost impossible to make the right choice of tyre in these conditions, also because this morning we didn't ride for a full practice.”

Speaking about the approach of Marquez, who became the first rider to break to two minute barrier around the English track in qualifying, Dovizioso added, “Well, did you see Marc riding any differently? So I think that one of the positive things of Marc is this, he's able to play with the limit. And not a lot of riders are able to do that. So most of the time he's past the limit, he makes a mistake, but he won a lot of titles.

“So that means he's good to manage this situation. For sure, Marc is a rider who it's difficult for him to not play with the limit, it's normal for him, he has to do that every time. But most of the time, it's good, so you never know.

“But everybody is on the limit in the race, so anything can happen at any time. But when you go into the race, you can't be thinking about that. If it happens, then OK, but it's not in my mind.”